Chapter 105: Vanquishing Evil

Jiang Fei suddenly broke free from his control. Caught completely off guard, the black magician took a massive blow.

She hacked apart the internal organs he had nourished with his lifeblood. His intestines ruptured, and blood seeped from the black magician's lower abdomen. The dried infant corpse spat out a mouthful of black sludge, as if suffering a heavy wound.

"How is this possible?! How could she break free from the hex sorcery's control?!" The black magician was at his absolute weakest. His internal organs were being nourished inside the Inner Coffin, his physical body was in a deep meditative trance, and his consciousness had left his body to attach itself to the Death Spirit Dried Corpse.

One entity split across three vessels. He seemed to have absolute control over the room, but in reality, if even a single link failed, his entire plan would collapse.

With his internal organs destroyed, his vitality was severely damaged. It became nearly impossible for him to control four people's minds simultaneously. I clearly felt the pressure on my back lessen. Two of the patients let go and stood frozen in place, seemingly unaware of what they were doing.

'My chance!' I planted one palm on the ground and grabbed the chain wrapped around my waist with the other. Twisting around, I threw the chain around the remaining patient's neck, rolling over and pinning him beneath me.

Snatching the Scalpel off the floor, I slashed straight into his femoral artery. Blood gushed out as I scrambled to my feet, lunging at the infant's dried corpse like an agile leopard.

With his consciousness trapped inside the infant corpse, the black magician could not return to his true body in time. Seeing me charge at him with a knife and murderous intent, he let out a shrill shriek and bit off the tip of his tongue, forcing out streaks of lifeblood. "Created from nothing, closer than parents, loathed by ghosts and gods alike! I am the one who gave you life! By my command, child ghost spirit hex!"

Lacking any casting tools in his hands, the black magician simply used the Death Spirit Child Corpse as a medium to unleash a spirit hex.

His consciousness stabbed into my spirit platform like a sharp blade. My legs gave out and I crashed to my knees, boundless darkness swallowing me whole.

Only a terrifying child ghost remained in my vision, crawling toward me. It drew closer and closer, crawling right up to my body, stopping right before my eyes, and trying to burrow straight into my head.

"Get out!"

Within my sea of consciousness, high above the spirit platform, a faint voice echoed out.

Though it was only a single word, it carried the absolute authority of words spoken and law follows. The child ghost that was about to burrow into my head was frightened completely out of its wits, fleeing backward like the wind.

'Who are you?'

...

My consciousness snapped back to reality. Only then did I realize my entire body was drenched in cold sweat, and a mark of violent death had appeared on the bridge of my nose—one that I couldn't wipe away no matter how hard I tried!

The situation just now had been hundreds of times more dangerous than I imagined. If that voice in my spirit platform hadn't intervened to save me, I would already be dead.

"What?!" The black magician's reaction was even more extreme than mine. Risking severe damage to his vitality, he forcibly yanked his consciousness back into his true body. He vomited three massive mouthfuls of blood before finally managing to stand straight. "What the hell are you hiding in your body?! How could a single shout force back the child ghost and break my spirit hex?!"

His eyes were wide with shock and doubt. First, his internal organs had been destroyed, leaving him with only half his power. Then he forcibly cast a spirit hex, only to have it broken and suffer the backlash. Right now, he probably couldn't even muster a tenth of his original abilities.

"Do you really think I'd tell you? You old dog! Today is the day you die!" Having barely survived by the skin of my teeth, I stood tall, gripping my blade.

The black magician's face darkened. The incense stick by his feet had one-third left to burn. "My strength may be drastically reduced, but I am still not someone a small fry like you can threaten."

Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, he sinisterly pulled out a small doll woven from human hair. "I am heavily injured, and I can barely control one person's mind right now, but that is more than enough!"

He pierced the doll's chest with a silver needle. "Put the knife to your own neck!"

He gave a completely baffling order. It wasn't until I looked back that I realized in horror that Jiang Fei, still standing inside the Blood Coffin, was pressing a sharp Scalpel against her snow-white neck.

The blade bit three fen deep into her flesh. Blood slid down her smooth skin and pooled at her chest.

"Jiang Fei..."

The black magician let out a bizarre, cackling laugh. "She must be the woman you love most, right? Take one more step forward, and I'll make her kill herself immediately!"

Still holding my knife, I slowly lowered my raised hand.

Jiang Fei was not the woman I loved most. I actually found her somewhat annoying. But watching her die right in front of me was something I absolutely could not allow to happen.

After all, if not for her just now, I might have already been force-fed the blood of the Death Spirit Dried Corpse.

"What do you want?" I stared evenly at the black magician, forcing my mind to cool down.

"Drop the knife first. Then I'll tell you what to do next."

The gleaming silver Scalpel hit the floor tiles with a crisp clatter.

I kicked the blade far away into the corner, blinked toward the door, and held up both hands. "And then?"

"Hold that pose and don't move." The black magician stood guarding the incense burner without taking a single step away. By now, the incense stick was down to its final fifth.

He picked up the doll in his hand and silently chanted an incantation. The vertical lines in Jiang Fei's eyes—the mark of the hex sorcery—deepened in color. She stepped out of the Blood Coffin, picked up another knife, and walked over to my side.

"Tsk, tsk, what a tragic scene of lovers parting in death. My favorite thing in the world is watching the beautiful futures you people dream of shatter into pieces. It's like smashing an expensive antique to the ground—it feels absolutely wonderful!" The black magician glanced at the nearly burnt-out incense and issued an order to Jiang Fei. "Stab the knife into this man's stomach! If he dares to resist, slit your own throat immediately!"

I stood exactly where I was, unmoving. Looking into Jiang Fei's eyes, watching the tears roll down her cheeks, I finally understood why the woman in the underground cell had been crying while smiling so obsequiously.

Jiang Fei's hand trembled violently around the knife handle. Struggling against the control, she stood in front of me, trying to say something, but she couldn't force the words out.

"Stab the knife into this man's stomach!" The black magician pulled out another silver needle and plunged it into the doll's chest once more. Jiang Fei's eyes slowly turned a bloodshot red, and her knife-wielding hand lifted.

'Gao Jian, dodge! Quickly, get out of the way!'

The sharp Scalpel reflected my perfectly calm face. I couldn't hear the frantic screams echoing in her heart, nor did I have any intention of dodging.

As the blade fell, a whirlwind of complex emotions surfaced on Jiang Fei's face. On the other side of the room, the black magician let out a malicious laugh. "This is only the beginning! I'll have her dismember you piece by piece! And even when you're dead, I'll turn you into a Little Ghost!"

Inside the incense burner at his feet, only a tiny sliver of the stick remained, the swirling smoke growing faint. The black magician seemed to be gloating over escaping certain death, and his way of celebrating was to torture others, building his own joy upon their suffering.

"No!"

The tip of the blade pierced the skin of my chest, but it did not sink deep. Jiang Fei's hand was shaking violently around the handle. Her lips turned purple as she stared stubbornly at my face. "Run!"

Forcing out that single word was the absolute limit of what she could do.

"You can actually resist it?! Then I'll give you a few more needles!" Hysterical, the black magician pulled four more silver needles from his robes, preparing to plunge them into the doll's four limbs.

Right as he poured all his concentration into casting the spell and stabbing the needles, right as Jiang Fei struggled bitterly against his control—no one in the ward noticed a small figure picking up the knife I had tossed into the corner.

His footsteps were incredibly light. The hand holding the knife was utterly steady. He was young, yet he knew exactly where to stab the human body to deliver a fatal strike!

He was the son of a devil. He was the product of a tragedy. His name was Song Xiaofeng.

The sharp blade pierced through skin, tore through flesh and blood, slipped past bone, and ruthlessly plunged directly into that beating heart!

The black magician, still in the middle of casting his spell, used every ounce of his remaining strength to turn his head. There, he saw a foolish, mentally deficient-looking child slowly and methodically pulling the blade from his heart!

Unable to speak as a geyser of bloody water surged up his throat, the black magician collapsed headfirst. His eyes stared blankly at the incense burner, watching the very last speck of incense ash burn away.

"With my eight characters of the death god, destined for calamity... the first encounter brings the noose, the second guarantees the beheading. Tonight is the day of the second encounter..."

Good and evil will face their due karmic retribution. It is not that they won't be repaid—it is simply that the time had not yet come!

Song Xiaofeng rained chaotic knife slashes down upon the fallen black magician. All the hatred suppressed in his heart was completely unleashed in this single moment.

The air in the ward seemed to lose its oppressive heaviness. The knife in Jiang Fei's hand stopped at my chest, having sunk two cun into the flesh.

The Red Cord of Marriage had snapped. The look on her face as she gazed at me turned strange. After a long silence, she finally murmured, "Why didn't you dodge?"

I didn't answer. I was covered in knife wounds, had been running for my life all night, and the injuries on my palms had long since festered into a mess. Utter exhaustion finally crushed me.

The moment I saw Song Xiaofeng succeed, I could no longer hold on.

With a faint smile hanging on my lips, I slumped to the ground.

The moment Jiang Fei hacked apart the black magician's internal organs, I had started plotting. I used myself as bait to let Song Xiaofeng make the killing blow—one standing in the light, one hiding in the dark; one feigning weakness, one striking true.

Watching Song Xiaofeng, who was still venting his fury on the black magician's body, my heart ached slightly. "The one who appears the most foolish might actually be the smartest of us all. I just don't know how long this child has been waiting for this exact day."